AUGUST 6, 2007

More action coming at Spyker

The Spyker F1 team is a subsidiary of Spyker Cars, the Dutch automobile company which is listed on the stock exchange in Amsterdam. The biggest shareholder in the business is the Mol Family, which became involved a year ago. The initial plan was to be just the team owner but the Mols were convinced that it would be sensible to buy the car company as well and thus use the racing to promote the automotive business and the money from car sales to help pay for the racing. As it turned out the car company was not doing as well as it first appeared and the investors had to use money from the racing team to keep the parent company afloat.

The word in Budapest is that there will soon be some movement in this matter with the likely scenario being that the car company and the racing team will be separated. In order to do this Spyker Cars will probably have to de-list from the stock exchange and it is most likel that the two independent companies that will result will both remain in private ownership, althoughy it is not yet clear who will own what. It is likely that as part of this restructuring, the F1 team will seek to reach a settlement with former team owner Midland, which is still owed money, scheduled in the sale 11 months ago. We hear that the team is hoping to pay the debt off at one go but would like to negotiate a reduction in the cost as as result.

Despite the financial hardships in recent months the team has refurbished the old Jordan wind tunnel in Brackley.

There are rumours, by the way that Mark Smith will soon return to the team where he spent most of his career. Smith was one of the original members of the Jordan design team back in 1991 and stayed with the team until he moved to Renault in 2001. He stayed there until the start of 2005 when he moved to Red Bull. He was recently pushed aside at Red Bull when the team put former Honda technical director Geoff Willis in his role.

The team will soon unveil the B-version of this year's Spyker, which will feature a great deal of influence from Mike Gascoyne. This is due to appear for the first time in Turkey.